Episode 43: Unboxing the BlackBerry Q10

In this week's episode, we unbox the BlackBerry Q10 for keyboard die-hards, road-test three action cameras with some radical motocross riders, and finish up our trip to NASA with a look at their robotics program.

The past three weeks of Always On showcased the roles tech can play in your summer vacation. In some cases, we determined whether or not your tech can survive your summer vacation. Now this episode doesn't involve snapping photos of spinner dolphins, desert road tripping in a tricked-out RV, or fitness tracking through mud at an average of 8,150 feet of elevation. But just because we're finally back home in the Bay Area doesn't mean we took a break from turning our environment into a tech battleground.

We start things off with an unboxing of the new BlackBerry Q10, or what we call the "BBQ10." However, right away it's clear that this phone is not intended for the guy in the backyard flipping steaks. At first glance, we're taken back a couple of years to when nearly every person in the Financial District walked around while thumbing their "crackberry." The folks at BlackBerry (no longer RIM) stuck to their guns with this one, resurrecting the popular keyboard design of their most successful device. We first saw the Q10 at Mobile World Congress (around the same time that we destroyed its brother, the Z10) and have been waiting eagerly to see it in action.

Feeling the pressure from GoPro and Contour, the Sony action camera catches air with Cody Thompson.

Next up, we're off to the races and, once again, bringing mud back into the equation. For this week's road test, we cruise to Club Moto in Livermore, Calif. to witness a heated battle in the ever-evolving action camera market. We give three professional motocross racers the GoPro Hero3 White Edition, the Sony HDR-AS15, and the Contour ROAM2 to stick to their helmets and hit the track. GoPro seems to dominate the field as of now, but with so many new competitors, can it still reign supreme?

In Future Tech, we finish off Jeff's dream trip to Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. While Jeff got to live out a childhood dream in Episode 38 by driving a Space Exploration Vehicle with an astronaut, this episode's NASA display wields enough awesomeness to give the SEV a run for its money. First off, Jeff meets Robonaut 2, NASA's robotic take on Samus from Super Metroid. Robonaut's got enough style to make other robots jealous, not to mention his terminator hands can put on a weight-lifting show that makes Jeff's arms sore for a week, literally. While on the subject of armor-suited crime fighters, shortly after Jeff's defeat, he got to try on NASA's exoskeleton suit. Let's just say he lived out another childhood dream, coming that much closer to feeling like a real-life Tony Stark.

After our Hawaii episode, the majority of e-mails we received were from folks reprimanding us for not knowing the underwater capabilities of an iPhone. Jeff claims to have known these things but was too caught up in the moment to put the pieces together. Needless to say, next time we're shooting photos of coral reefs underwater, we'll click those volume buttons like there's no tomorrow. As always, thanks for keeping us in line, and thanks for watching!